Maya (Lila)

Awareness of unity is lost as the player becomes fascinated with the play, setting up rules and committing himself to play it through to the end. The one reality becomes the many of illusion, of ignorance, of lack of knowledge. The phenomenal world evolves under the play of the three gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas – and cosmic consciousness becomes individual consciousness.

The second state or square on the board of Lila, the game of knowledge, appearing in the first row. The two represents delusion and duality.